by Holly Martin
‘I’ve just sold one of my big sculptures to one of those posh hotels in the next town. I got five thousand for that, you can have it,’ Jamie said, without any hesitation.
‘I probably have four thousand you can have,’ Carolyn added. ‘I have a lump sum from my pension, it’s just sitting there in my account. I was thinking I might put it towards a conservatory but, hell, it’s not something I need.’
‘We don’t have a ton of money as we’re saving for the baby and the wedding but we could probably spare a couple of thousand,’ Aidan said.
‘We’re saving for the baby too, but I could give you five hundred pounds. It’s not much but if it helps I’d gladly give it to you,’ Emily said.
‘No, wait, I can’t take your money,’ Isla said. ‘Thank you, that’s very kind, but you all work damned hard for that money and I’m not going to take it from you.’
‘Why not?’ Melody said. ‘You’d do the same for us if we were in trouble.’
‘I would but this isn’t fair.’
‘None of this is fair,’ Tori said. ‘If it was fair, Sadie would never have come back at all and she certainly wouldn’t be holding the future of your child to ransom, what kind of asshole does that? But as it’s quite clear she has no scruples and as we all love you and want to help you, you’ll take the money.’
Isla sighed, her shoulders slumping. She looked utterly defeated and not just by this conversation but this whole situation. Leo just wanted to take all this away from her.
He stroked down her back. ‘Come on, let’s make a start on dinner. That’s if my kitchen isn’t covered in glitter.’
‘Good luck with that,’ Emily said.
He smiled as he stood. He’d take all the glitter in the world if it meant having Isla and Elliot in his home where they belonged.
Chapter Nineteen
Isla stared at the envelopes of money on the table. She had refused to give her friends and family her bank details because she still didn’t feel right taking the money from them. So envelopes stuffed with cash had all arrived this morning from Aidan, Tori, Jamie, Melody, Emily, Carolyn and even Agatha, who had no doubt been informed of the situation.
She felt awful that so many people were freely giving her their hard-earned cash when all of this could have been solved if she just moved in with Leo.
She thought back to the night before and how he’d made love to her. It wasn’t rushed and passionate like it had been before, it had been slow, gentle, languid. The way he had stroked and caressed her like she was someone to be cherished and adored. And the way he had looked into her eyes as they’d made love, she knew that he loved her as much as she loved him. She wondered why she was holding back from this. He was her forever, why didn’t she just grab hold of this opportunity now?
But in her heart, she knew it was the right decision not to move in with him, not yet. She wanted it to work with Leo more than anything and turning up on his doorstep with all her worldly goods and five tons of toys for Elliot just seemed like it would be too much too soon. She didn’t want to scare him away.
But nothing seemed to faze him. Elliot had had nightmares the night before, waking them both up with his screams. Leo had been on his feet and out the door before Isla could even get out of bed. He’d brought a crying Elliot back into bed with them and cuddled him between them until Elliot had gone back to sleep. Isla had thought Leo would take Elliot back to his own room after that but he didn’t. With one arm round Isla and Elliot fast asleep on his chest, they’d spent the rest of the night like that, all entwined together like a proper family. And even this morning, when Leo was woken by a fist in the face and a heel to the stomach as Elliot starfished across the bed, it didn’t seem to bother him.
Leo walked into the kitchen wearing jeans and a thick jumper. With his dark curly hair slightly damp from the shower they’d shared this morning, he looked like he’d just stepped off the pages of a catalogue.
He dropped a kiss on her head and then stole a slice of banana from Elliot’s plate.
‘Hey!’ Elliot said, indignantly.
‘Nice smiley face.’ Leo indicated the French toast on Elliot’s plate which Isla had cut into two eyes, chocolate sauce for the spiky hair and the chopped banana arranged into a big smile.
‘You stole his nose,’ Elliot giggled. ‘That’s the best bit.’
Leo moved another slice of banana from the smile to take up the nose position and Elliot seemed happy with that.
‘Are we ready for the Great Pumpkin-Carving competition?’ Leo said.
‘Yay!’ Elliot cheered. Obviously the nightmares of the night before had been completely forgotten this morning.
Leo sat down next to him. ‘Are we going to do it as a team or do you want to do one on your own? Me and Isla can help with some of the cutting.’
‘Can we do one together as a family?’ Elliot said.
‘Of course we can, buddy,’ Leo said.
Elliot took a bite of his French toast, kicking his legs happily. ‘Marigold says we’re going to get married soon.’
Isla had to smile at that. We’re going to get married. As if it would be a group activity, which she supposed in some way it would be.
‘Did she?’ Leo said, again unfazed as he grabbed a piece of toast and started buttering it.
‘Because we’ve now moved in with you,’ Elliot said.
‘We haven’t moved in with Leo,’ Isla quickly corrected. ‘We’re just staying with him for a few days.’
‘But you are getting married?’ Elliot said.
‘Maybe,’ Isla said, carefully.
‘Yes,’ Leo said, at the same time.
Isla supposed she should be annoyed that Leo was offering Elliot empty promises again but they no longer felt like vague pledges that would never happen. She knew they would end up there and probably sooner rather than later. He loved her and, although he hadn’t said it yet, they were clearly on the same page now.
‘I think… it’s very likely that we will but now isn’t the right time.’
‘And when you get married, then we’ll move in here?’ Elliot said, not to be deterred.
‘That’s right, buddy,’ Leo said. ‘We’ll be a proper family and one of those spare rooms upstairs will be your toy room.’
‘Which one?’
‘The big room.’
‘But that’s Isla’s room,’ Elliot said, in confusion.
‘When we get married, we’ll be sharing a bedroom,’ Leo explained patiently.
‘Oh. Will I still have my own room?’
‘Of course.’
‘And Luke will live here too.’
‘Yes, we couldn’t leave him behind.’
Elliot popped another piece of banana in his mouth.
‘And I’ll get a baby sister?’
Leo grinned. ‘We’re going to do our very best on that one.’
Isla wanted to be angry that her whole life was being planned out for her but she wanted that life so much: marriage, living here with Elliot as a family, maybe having children of their own one day. And it sounded like Leo wanted all of that too.
So why the hell was she holding back? Relationships didn’t move to a given schedule, there were no rules that said when the right time was to move in with someone. She had known Leo for years, they had been best friends, seeing each other every day for the past year, and she’d been in love with him for too many months to count. He had proved, time and time again, that he was here for her, that he adored Elliot. So what was she waiting for? And maybe everything that was happening with Sadie had brought it all to a head, but it had been bubbling there for some time. She knew it probably wasn’t the right time to make decisions about her future with everything else up in the air, but maybe actually it was the perfect time. Maybe when her back was against the wall and she could see that Leo was still there for her, holding her hand, she needed to take a step towards the future she wanted. Maybe something positive should come from this.
She looked a
t the money on the table. ‘I can’t take this.’
The smile fell from Leo’s face. ‘Yes you can. People want to help and we need all the help we can get at the moment.’
She shook her head. ‘No, you don’t understand, I don’t need it—’
‘We do, I’ve already spoken to Kim this morning. She let me know officially about the request for seventy-five thousand and I’ve offered a counter-offer of twenty-five. With this money and my ten grand, we’d have twenty-five. If she accepts then you wouldn’t need to sell the house.’
Elliot looked between them with wide eyes. ‘We’re selling our home?’
‘Yes,’ Isla said. Suddenly she’d never been so sure of anything in her entire life.
‘No, you’re not,’ Leo said firmly. ‘You belong here in Sandcastle Bay; your family is here. Stop being so bloody stubborn and independent and let your friends and family help you for once.’
Elliot giggled. ‘You said bloody.’
‘Sorry buddy, I did, but your mum’s being infuriating,’ Leo said.
Elliot shook his head at Isla. ‘Silly Mummy.’
Her heart leapt. He’d never called her that. He had kept saying, Isla is like my mummy, and when he’d drawn pictures of his family, Isla was always the mummy, but he’d never actually called her that. It was always Isla. She hadn’t realised how much she would like being called Mummy before.
‘Yes she is, isn’t she? She…’ Leo trailed off as he too realised what Elliot had said. He looked over at Isla and his face softened.
She cleared her throat. ‘And your dad won’t listen to me.’
Leo quirked an eyebrow.
‘Silly Daddy,’ Elliot said, wagging a finger at Leo. And then giggled as if he liked trying these new words on for size.
The whole of Leo’s face lit up. He cleared his throat but when he spoke his voice was thick with emotion. ‘We need to get ready, we need to be at the pumpkin-carving competition in half an hour.’
He stood up and kissed Elliot on the head. ‘Love you,’ he said and left the room.
Elliot stared after him. ‘Did I make him sad?’
‘I think you just made him very happy,’ Isla said.
The rules for the pumpkin-carving competition were quite strict and there were lots of them. Everyone had been asked to bring their own pumpkin that fell within a certain size bracket so that all competition entries could be judged equally. They were allowed to bring their own cutting tools, but props and stencils were strictly forbidden. All pumpkins had to be checked to make sure that there were no pencil marks or holes premade on the pumpkin so everyone was starting from a clean slate.
It all seemed a bit over the top to Leo for what was supposed to be a family event, but that didn’t stop the families and teams signing up in their droves as they struggled in with their pumpkins and waited patiently while they were measured and checked. Tori and Aidan were there a few tables down, as were Jamie and Melody. Emily and Stanley were on the other side of the village hall with Marigold, who was determined to win and appeared to be giving her parents strict instructions.
Agatha was also here and surprisingly appeared to be in a team with Stefano from the Italian restaurant. She had been trying to get him to agree to go on a date with her for months – had he finally succumbed? Although Stefano didn’t look entirely thrilled about his new team mate, as they were clearly arguing over what they were going to carve. But they were here together, which was a start.
This was the first year that Leo had entered, as it was more an event for families or couples than individuals. This was the first year he had a family of his own. He swallowed down the lump of emotion in his throat as he thought about that, how utterly complete his life was now.
‘It’s a bit serious, isn’t it?’ Isla whispered as one of the judges walked past with their clipboards, giving them the beady eye to make sure they hadn’t started yet.
‘You know Sandcastle Bay, we take all our competitions and festivals very seriously,’ Leo said, examining their pumpkin. ‘So what are we going to make?’
‘Batman,’ Elliot said, excitedly.
Leo looked at their pumpkin and tried to work out how he would achieve that.
‘We could do Batman’s head or the Batman logo,’ Leo said. Normally he had a lot more time to plan out what he was going to do in these kind of competitions, and normally the work was all done at home weeks in advance. However, with everything that had happened over the last few days, he hadn’t really given this much thought so he really was starting from scratch.
Isla picked up the long list of rules and flicked through them.
Leo looked at the spare pumpkin they’d brought along, just in case Elliot decided he wanted to do his own pumpkin after all. A lot of the kids were doing their own and Isla thought once Elliot saw the other children working by themselves he might want to do that too.
‘Elliot, are you sure you want to work with us?’ Leo said. ‘Because I might have use for your spare pumpkin.’
‘I want to work together as a family,’ Elliot said.
Leo smiled. He loved that Elliot had called him Daddy that morning. It had been a silly, off-hand comment but it had filled his heart.
‘OK, Isla, anything in those rules that says we can’t use more than one?’
Isla scanned through the list, flicking the sheet over to check the rules on the other side too. ‘Surprisingly not.’
‘OK, so we can use the slightly smaller one as Batman’s head and the bigger one as his body with the cloak and utility belt,’ Leo said.
Elliot jumped up and down with excitement. ‘It’s going to be amazing.’
Leo swung him up onto his hip and Elliot kissed him on the cheek and gave him a big hug.
Leo looked over at Isla to see if she agreed with the Batman plan and realised she was staring at them. He looped an arm round her shoulders, bringing her into the group hug, and she slipped an arm round his stomach and leaned into him.
‘You OK?’ he said softly.
She nodded but she didn’t say anything.
‘Can I go and see Marigold?’ Elliot said.
Leo placed him down on the floor and he ran off.
Immediately Leo pulled Isla back into a hug and kissed her on the head.
‘What’s wrong?’
She clung onto him for a second as if she wanted to hold him close and then she leaned back slightly to look at him. He watched her visibly take a deep breath as if about to say something terrible but then she seemed to change her mind. He realised she was trembling slightly in his arms. Then her face set with determination and she took another deep breath. What the hell was she going to say to him because it didn’t look like it was going to be anything positive?
‘I love you,’ Isla said and his heart roared to life in his chest. ‘I know this is definitely not the right time to tell you, in a hall full of people and with all this mess with Sadie going on, but I wanted you to know. I love you. In fact, I’ve been in love with you for some time. You are the most incredible, amazing man I’ve ever met and I’m head over heels in love with you.’
Leo stared at her. His mouth was dry and there were no words in his head at all.
She loved him.
He knew she had feelings for him and he’d hoped and thought that she might love him, but to actually hear her say it was something else entirely. If he’d thought he had felt complete this morning when Elliot had called him Daddy, this was another league of happiness.
Christ, why did she have to tell him here, in front of all these people? He wanted to kiss her, pin her to the nearest hard surface and make love to her.
He realised he still hadn’t spoken. He needed to tell her how he felt too, how much joy she brought him. What were the words he should use? He needed to get this right and simply to say, ‘I love you,’ suddenly felt wildly inadequate.
‘I—’
She put her fingers to his lips. ‘I don’t need you to say it back, that’s not what this
is. I just wanted you to know how I felt.’
‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming today, and welcome to the fifth annual Great Pumpkin-Carving Competition.’ The voice of the mayor came over the loudspeaker, interrupting this wonderful moment. Everyone started cheering and clapping.
Damn it. He couldn’t concentrate on a bloody stupid pumpkin competition now. He wanted to take her somewhere quiet and tell her everything that was in his heart. Except his godson was running back across the hall towards them, a huge excited grin on his face. There was no way they could leave now, Elliot would be distraught.
Isla pulled away from him and swept Elliot up in her arms, peppering his face with kisses.
‘I hope you all have been reading the rules,’ the mayor went on and everyone groaned playfully.
Leo couldn’t take his eyes off Isla. She had told him she loved him and he’d said nothing. Not one word. That wasn’t how he imagined it going down at all. Not even close.
‘Are you ready, beautiful boy?’ Isla said and Elliot cheered.
‘So, as you know because you’ve all read the rules,’ the mayor teased. ‘You have thirty minutes to create your pumpkin masterpieces. There is a prize for the best child’s pumpkin and a prize for the best team pumpkin. May the best carver win. Everyone, to your pumpkins. We’ll start the competition in ten, nine, eight…’
Elliot slipped his hand into Leo’s, distracting him from his thoughts.
‘Are we going to win, Daddy?’ Elliot said.
God, his heart felt fit to burst. He didn’t deserve any of this. What was a man like him doing with this perfect, ready-made family who loved him?
‘Hell yeah, we’re going to win,’ Leo said, his voice thick.
‘…three, two, one,’ the mayor said over the microphone.
An air horn filled the air and suddenly there was a flurry of activity.
‘OK, I’m going to chop the lid off this one. Isla, can you chop the lid off that one and then, Elliot, you can help us get the goo and slime out.’
‘Yes, I love goo and slime!’ Elliot said.
Leo was aware those were the first words he’d spoken to Isla since she’d told him she loved him but she didn’t seem to care. She picked up the pumpkin and started chopping around the stalk to get a lid. He did the same on his pumpkin and then he and Elliot started scooping out the insides, Elliot giggling over how slimy it was.
